Pasig—(PHStocks)—The Philippine operations of leading online stockbroker COL Financial Group Inc. (PSE: COL) continued to post record numbers. During the first nine months of 2012, commission revenues from the Philippines jumped by 19% to PhP300.6 million. Meanwhile, COL’s consolidated asset base expanded by 6.3% to PhP3.7 billion as of end September compared to its end 2011 level.

The strong growth in commission revenues is attributable to the significant increase in the value of transactions in the PSE and the strong growth in COL’s client base. During the first nine months of 2012,

Total value turnover in the PSE grew by 43%. The growth in COL’s commision revenues, however, was slower primarily because of the smaller share of local investors to total transactions in the PSE. From 63% during the first nine months of 2011, the share of local investors to total transactions fell to 44% during the first nine months of this year.

Nevertheless, COL’s total client base continued to grow, reaching over 42,000 as of end September from 27,306 as of end 2011. This was also responsible for the strong growth in COL’s asset base as client equity expanded to PhP31.7 billion as of end September from PhP16.4 billion as of end 2011.

Due to the strong growth in COL’s domestic operations, the Philippines already accounted for 91% of consolidated revenues during the first nine months of 2012, up from 82% for the whole of 2011.

Col also maintained its leadership position in the PSE during the period in review. COL’s market share in terms of volume of transactions jumped to 23% during the first nine months of 2012 from 21% in 2011, strengthening its position as the number one stockbroker in the PSE. In value terms, COL maintained its rank as the 7thlargest stockbroker, handling PhP111.6 billion worth of transactions.

Despite the strong growth of its Philippines operations, consolidated net income fell by 7.5% during the first nine months of 2012 to PhP266.5 million. Growth was tempered by the weak performance of its HK Subsidiary and as COL expanded its operations domestically leading to higher costs. Revenues from HK fell by 53% to PhP43.9 million as market conditions continued to deteriorate, while operating expenses in the Philippines grew by 32% to PhP169.9 million.

“COL continues to grow exponentially as reflected in the double digit growth of our customer base, and expanding customer equity positions. We attribute this growth and our high customer satisfaction ratings to the value added services that we provide such as special market briefings and seminars, our robust and user-friendly trading platform and accessible customer service. We also increased the frequency of our broad range of seminars and topics to address the growing demand for investor education from the investing public,” says COL President and CEO Dino Bate.

“Our investments in our infrastructure, the right quality and competent team and our sustained efforts in investor education in the last year allows us to confidently ensure the sustainability of our long term organic growth, as COL would like to remain as the broker of choice for Filipinos who what to achieve financial freedom.”